How easy it is for us to say NO
to food we don’t like
because we’re simply too full or just not in the mood
How easy it is for us to to say no
to food that is not to our liking or taste.
Our exclusive palates so pampered and spoilt
That we flatly refuse to try anything slightly unfamiliar
Scared to try even the tiniest of crumbs
We stick up our noses at strange smells and aromas
And stay by what’s trusted and tried over years.
We condemn all those others who don’t eat like we do
And judge them as barbarians or philistines or just plain cuckoo.
We have food fads and fancies
And gadgets and gizmos
And people who pander
To our diets and food kinks.
How easy it is for us to choose the food that we like
The tastiest, the best and the choicest of choices.
How easy it is for us to make food
With exotic ingredients from far off places
With strange sounding spices
And unpronounceable names.
How easy it is for us to stuff ourselves to burping
Eating whatever we want to
whenever we want to and the way that we want
Sometimes more than we need.
And yet there are people, just a few feet away
Who day after day and year after year,
Don’t know from where their next meal is coming
Who don’t have the privilege of saying NO
To the food they don’t like
They don’t have an idea of how to say NO
It’s not of my choice.
I don’t like the colour
I don’t like the flavour
I don’t want to eat now
Because the poor souls have NO food at all.
The next time we dismiss food on the table as unappetising or simply not our favourite, let us think of the millions of children who don’t have the luxury of saying no to food. We are indeed lucky that we don’t have to think about this problem – that we have the opportunity to feed our bodies and our minds. While it is impossible to feed every hungry mouth, it is definitely possible to feed one. Let us feed a child today but also keep in mind
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Let each one of us lucky Indians help eliminate Classroom hunger today.
I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda
